This invention relates generally to surgical fastener applying instruments, and more particularly to a reloading unit to facilitate reusing such instruments and their stapling assemblies.
Surgical fastening instruments have been developed utilizing stapling assemblies which include an array or charge of U-shaped staples to be utilized generally simultaneously. Included in the prior art, and illustrative thereof, are surgical fastening instruments which apply linear arrays of staples to body tissue clamped between a staple cartridge and anvil of a stapling assembly. In addition, surgical fasteners known in the prior art apply circular arrays of surgical staples to hollow body organs clamped between the staple cartridge and anvil. Illustrative of the former is U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,322 issued to Green et al. on Mar. 4, 1986, while the latter type instrument is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,236 issued to Conta et al., on Dec. 8, 1981.
While surgical fasteners of the above type have met with a great commercial acceptance, their usage has been limited to a single firing or discharge of an array of staples during a surgical procedure. Once these instruments have been so used, they are typically disposed of, and if another stapling procedure is required during the surgical procedure with the same patient, another instrument is employed. Such usage is expensive since the instrument is used only once and discarded.
Surgical fastening instruments are also available which are intended to be reused, thus providing multiple applications of surgical fastening. In such instruments, after the initial discharge of staples has taken place during a surgical procedure, reuse of the instrument is facilitated by replacing the entire stapling assembly. In other words, the stapling assembly, which includes the staple cartridge and anvil and which may also include an alignment means, is replaced. Thus, the spent stapling assembly is removed from the instrument and a new sterilized stapling assembly is inserted as a replacement therefor.
Staple assemblies are relatively expensive and replacement of numerous staple cartridges or staple assemblies during a single surgical procedure for certain applications become expensive and time consuming.
By the means disclosed herein, a reloading unit for surgical fasteners is provided which facilitates reuse of the instrument several times during a surgical procedure with the same patient. The reloading unit is further advantageous because of its relatively low cost and ease of reloading an otherwise disposable surgical fastener.